What Use Is Wyrd?

Once we start to understand what wyrd is, and how it works in our lives, we can start to use it... well, perhaps 'use' is not quite the right word, since there is no way in which we can ever control it... but we do at least begin to have real choices in how we interact with it.

As a first stage, we each need to identify for ourselves, from our own experience, that the wyrd is real - that it's something more than 'mere coincidence'. How you best do that is up to you: but we've provided a few wyrd examples to help you do so, and we've also provided some exercises in practical wyrdness (extracted from Tom Graves' book Positively Wyrd) to help you on your way.

Perhaps the best-known but least understood example of everyday wyrdness is Murphy's Law: "if something can go wrong, it probably will". It's not just a joke, it actually is a true law: but once we understand its wyrd nature, and learn to work with it, we find that it's one of the most useful laws around...

Understanding wyrd enough to make use of it is a skill, like any other; and like any other skill, learning it can seem like a labyrinth that's so full of twists and turns that it might drive us crazy! Yet the labyrinth - the ancient seven-turn, single-path maze - is itself an excellent example of how the wyrd works in practice, in the process of learning any skill: it may seem crazy at first, but deliberately going round the bend in the labyrinth may be a better way to go!